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VATICAN CITY, SEP 16, 2003 (VIS) - Cardinal Paul Poupard, president of the Pontifical Council for Culture, is participating this week in the meeting of leaders of Catholic Cultural Centers of the Southern hemisphere in the Pontifical Catholic University of Valparaiso, Chile which celebrates the 75th anniversary of its founding.

On September 15 the cardinal participated in the Fourth National Meeting of Catholic Academicians of Chile, an initiative born in the Jubilee Year 2000. Today he will join a colloquium with the Board of Directors of the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, during which he will celebrate Mass.

According to a communique made public today, Cardinal Poupard will speak at the opening conference on September 17 on "The mission of Catholic Cultural Centers as a service to the Gospel that reinforces the Catholic identity." He will develop "four basic concepts - fervor, tolerance, profit, religious indifference - which illustrate the changes in modern society, characterized by the phenomenon of sects, the growth of agnosticism and religious indifference, resistance and distrust of institutions, social inequalities." The talks by cultural leaders conclude September 19.

Cardinals Francisco Javier Errazuriz of Santiago de Chile and Claudio Hummes of Sao Paulo, Brazil are participating in the gathering, as well as the presidents of the episcopal commissions for Culture of Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Paraguay. In addition, leaders of 30 Catholic cultural centers in the region are present.

- Accepted the resignation from the pastoral care of the diocese of Richmond, U.S.A., presented by Bishop Walter Francis Sullivan upon having reached the age limit.

- Appointed Fr. Jose Refugio Mercado Diaz, episcopal vicar and pastor in the archdiocese of Guadalajara, Mexico, as auxiliary bishop of the diocese of Tehauntepec (area 25,500, population 1,452,000, Catholics 1,145,000, priests 61, religious 131), Mexico. The bishop-elect was born in Ixtlahuacan del Rio, Mexico in 1942 and was ordained priest in 1972.